Story of the Lone Wanderer of the Vault 101
by Misplaced-Alaskan316
Summary: A record of the Lone Wander from his point of view. Warning: It will not be an exact novelization, I'm including my own version of how things should have went.
1. Vault 101

_Her daintily kisses trailed down from my chest slowly toward my cock, she paused at my navel then looked up into my eye with those half lidded, lust-filled eye. She smirked and instead of continuing her path toward my cock, she back-tracked her way up my chest causing me to groaned in frustration. She continued up past my chest and then when her mouth came up next to my ear, she screamed, _

"_WAKE UP, YOU GOTTA WAKE UP!!!"_

Amata's screaming woke me up from the extremely erotic dream of her and me. For a moment I was distorted but the fear in her eye grabbed my attention,

"Huh, Amata, what's wrong!?" I swung my leg over the bed holding the blanket to my lap with one hand and grabbed her arm with the other while speaking gently, "Amata, calm down and tell me what's going on."

Amata took a deep breath and explained,

"Look, your father left the vault this morning,"

"Dad left the vault, how!?" I interrupted

"I don't know," Amata replied, "but it pushed my father over the edge, he had the vault security interrogate Dr. Jonas but instead the guards beaten him to death and dad didn't even try to stop it. I overheard him ordering the guards to come for you. I don't know how I managed to get here ahead of them but you gotta get out of here, I think it'll be best if you go after your father."

I didn't hear her, I was in daze. _My father left the vault, how?_ Amata shovel something into my hand shaking me out of my daze, it was a 10 mm pistol.

"I took this out of a weapon locker in my dad's room," Amata handed me a small blue box of bobby pins along with a screwdriver, "here, you'll need it to get into my father's office. There's a tunnel to the vault door through there. You'll have to hack into his terminal. I don't know the password."

"I'll take the bobby pins and the screwdriver but you hold onto the pistol," I handed the pistol back, "Don't worry, Office Gomez trained me in hand to hand combat, I won't need the pistol but you might."

Amata hesitated but I pushed the pistol into her hand and she relented. She got up and left, pausing at the door and turned back to me and wished me luck, then she was gone. I jumped up naked, gratefully that she didn't rip the blanket off or she would've met the junior standing at attention. After slipping the vault 101 jumpsuit on, I grabbed the pip-boy 3000A and strapped it on my right forearm.

I also grabbed the duffle bag from my footlocker and stuffed my extra jumpsuit and the first aid box into the duffle bag before grabbing my baseball bat. I spotted my old bb gun and decided to take it along; I also grabbed the can of ammo for the gun. Once I had the gun secured to the bag, I headed straight for the door but before I got close, I overheard one of the guard screaming about radroaches. I snuck a peek around the corner and saw Officer Kendall beating away at the radroaches with his police baton.

I used the opportunity to try and sneak by but unfortunately, Kendall managed to kill the last of the radroaches before I even got close. He turned to me and swung the baton at my head, the VATS implants in my head activated, dumping enough adrenaline into my system to make time slowed down enough for me to duck under the baton and I jabbed the baseball bat into his crotch. While Kendall was hunched over clutching his ball, I whacked him on the head with the bat, knocking him out. While he was out, I took his armor and strapped it over my jumpsuit before continuing on my way.

I didn't get very far before Butch, of all people, ran up and asked me to save his mother from radroaches. _If only he know what irony meant. _I detested the guy but I couldn't abandon his mother so I went and killed the three radroaches. After the roaches were killed, Butch came in and gave me his jacket out of gratitude, I couldn't help but think, _WHAT A PUSSY_, all he had to do to save his mother was to stomp on the two feet long roaches.

I left the room and when I passed the cafeteria, I spotted a body inside and checked it out, it was Grandma Taylor, three radroaches had killed the only woman that was like a grandma to me, in a blind rage, I went on a mini rampage and all that was left of the radroaches was bunch of green paste. After I calmed down a little, I left the cafeteria and kept on. I went up the stairs and ran into Stanley, Officer Gomez, and Andy, a Mr. Handy robot. Andy was roasting radroaches with his flamethrower while Gomez kills the other radroaches.

I approached Gomez with caution, even though it was him that taught me hand to hand combat and shooting, he still was a guard. Gomez saw me and instead of attacking, he just talked,

"Look, I don't know why your dad left but you were one of my best student so I'm not going to stop you but I recommend you leave the vault too. I don't agree with the overseer and I sure as hell don't like what he and the rest of the guards did to Dr. Jonas."

He sighed and then left, I watched him walk away and went inside my dad's clinic where Stanley was working on Andy. Where Gomez taught me fighting and shooting, Stanley taught me robotic engineer and computer programming. He did the same thing as Gomez, said I was his best student and suggested that I get out of the vault. Before I left, I stopped by dad's office and grabbed the Medicine bobblehead from my dad's desk. Then I headed to the Atrium.

As I was crossing the Atrium, Officer Richards and Officer O'Brian immediately started firing at me from the hall leading to the main entrance. I don't know if it was luck or they had very bad aim but I managed to get out of their line of fire. Once I was out of their sight, I hugged the wall as I sneak toward the main entrance. When officer Richards came out of the hall's entrance, I swung the bat as hard as I could and I could hear the crunching as the bat impacted onto his nose. The force of the impact threw his body into a backflip and almost immediately after, O'Brian started firing at me. I could see the sparks as the bullet ricochet off the metal frame of the entrance.

When Richards collapsed, his pistol fell at my feet and I knee down to recover it. I waited until there was a break in the firing as O'Brian reload his pistol, then I active the VATS implant before popping around the corner and shot off a round. With the dump of the adrenaline in my system, I saw the trail left by the bullet as it flew straight for the 'sweet spot', as Gomez would call it, between O'Brian's eyes. The impact of the bullet on the medulla oblongata cause instant death and he collapsed as if the puppet strings had been cut.

I approached the body and I couldn't help but stare into the dead eyes of O'Brian, it was then that I realized that I had just killed two men that I had known my entire life. For some reason, a bead of blood trickling down the side of O'Brian's head held my attention so much that I didn't notice a radroach creeping up on me until it attacked the back of my leg. It startled me badly that I emptied the rest of the clip in my pistol into the radroach.

When I heard the pistol clicking, I realized that I was out of ammo and I had to brace myself before going through both O'Brian and Richards bodies for more ammo, I also decided to take the another pistol in O'Brian's hand and their armor as well. The extra armors, I stuffed into my duffle bag and stick the another pistol in the back of my pant. After exchanging the empty clip for a new one, I kept on, taking the stairs to the upper level killing few more radroaches on the way. I stumbled across the body of the Security Chief Hannon. It seems that the radroaches had killed him and dismembered his legs, I didn't stay long.

As I was passing through the system room, I came across yet another body, this time, the body of Floyd Lewis. One of the computer programmers and an recluse, I barely knew him. I continued on until I came up to the security room, I heard Amata's voice and I peeked into the window, The overseer, Amata's dad, and Officer Mack was there interrogating Amata. I was about to sneak by when I overheard Amata's dad threaten to let Mack use physical force to get her to talk. I snapped and before I knew it, I barged into the room taking everybody by surprise. Mack didn't have any time to turn around before I shattered his knee with the bat and then snapped his neck on the backswing. Amata had run out of the room the minute I barged in, for that, I'm extremely grateful, she didn't need to see that.

The Overseer was standing in the corner with a wide eye staring at me as if he had never seen me before.

"Threaten your own daughter, what kind of bastard are you?" I screamed at him, "I would never do that to my own child even if my own life depends on it."

The overseer straighten up and in an irritating superiority voice, he spoke

"I am the overseer of the vault and it is my duty to protect the people from threats, both internal and external. If it means threaten my daughter, I would do it again."

"You know, I've always thought you were an asshole, but that would just demean the real assholes. I don't know any words that would be appropriate for you but guess what?" I paused for a moment before knocking him out with the bat to the jaw. After spitting on the unconscious body on the floor, I grabbed his shirt and dragged him to the cell and closed the door, but it won't lock so I took out my pistol and shot the control panel to the door. The destruction of the panel automatically locks the door and I left the overseer behind as I resume on.

The overseer's office and apartment wasn't far, but when I came around the corner, I saw the body of Dr. Jonas laying there. He was clutching a holotape in his hand and I could see dad's handwriting on the label. I gently unclench Jonas's hand and took the tape. I also took his lab coat and covered him. Just as I finished covering him, I heard a cry coming from the overseer's office; I recognized it immediately and ran to the source of the voice.

It was Amata, when she heard me running in, her head snapped up, eye wide with fear. But when she saw me, she jumped up and grabbed me in a bear hug and broke down completely. I comforted her the best I could and when she regained control of herself, she took out the pistol and jammed it into my hand,

"Take it please, I don't want it anymore. I almost pulled it out to shoot Mack when you came in. I don't want to know what I would've done if I still had it. Please take it."

I took the gun and stuffed it into my bag after switching the safety on. She sighed and pushed me away,

"Go, please."

I left her there and went into the overseer's office and hacked into the computer terminal where I found something unbelievable. The bastard had already opened the vault before, there was scouting reports from February 10, 2241, thirty six years ago. I downloaded the scouting report to my pip-boy and opened the tunnel's entrance. I heard creaking behind me and I spun around only to see the desk rising revealing the entrance.

When the entrance was opened, I sprinted in and closed the entrance behind me. After going through few more doors, I finally reached the Vault door. A massive ten feet tall, cog-shaped steel door, I stood there staring at the door thinking, w_hat a big fucking door_. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the control pad pedestal. I went over to the control pad and flip the switch to the door.

Just as a huge device dropped from the ceiling toward the door, Amata came in, and we both watched as the device opened the door. When the door rolled to the side revealing a cave beyond the door. Amata exclaimed,

"My god, you actually did it, I almost didn't believe it was possible!"

I couldn't help but to smile at that and I asked if she wanted to come but she frowned,

"No, it's tempting but the vault needs me more than you do. I'm sorry."

Amata looked down in shame but I reached out and lifted her jaw,

"Never be sorry." I leaned forward to kiss her but Officer Park and Wolfe picked that particular time to burst in, forcing me to flee through the door. Once I crossed the threshold, the officers stopped and I could hear them refusing to go anywhere near the threshold. Instead, they closed the door sealing me out. Even though getting out was my main objection, I couldn't help but wanting to be back on the other side of the door.

To take my mind off the sealing of the door, I looked around and I could see few skeletons and signs. I bend down to read the signs, it said; we're _dying assholes! Help us! And Let us in Motherfuckers! _I couldn't help but wonder if that signs were written right after the Great War or much later when the writers were dying of radiation. I shuddered at the thoughts as I looked up from the signs and I could see a gate with light streaming in from the outside.

With a sense of trepidation, I approached the gate and already my eyes were watering before I had even stepped outside. I stood there for a while letting my eye adjust to the intensity of the light. When my eye had adjusted, I stepped through the gate into bright light.


	2. Capital Wasteland

When I opened the door, I was immediately blinded but thanks to my fore-thinking, adjusting to the light from the inside, my eyes adjust to the direct sunlight even quicker. When my eyes cleared, I found myself standing upon a rocky bluff, in front of the gate's entrance, my eyes, still watering from the first sunlight I ever saw, looked out at the land outside the vault, I couldn't believe how dead the land looked. The pictures of Washington D.C. from pre-war had so much greenery in them but now, nothing but sand, rocks, and ruins.

I saw a sign nearby and went to investigate it. The sign proclaiming the spot I was standing on to be a scenic overlook and I could see in distance to my right, a pile of rusted metal that I recognized as Megaton from the scouting report. Below the scenic overlook and to my left was a ruin town, as I surveyed the land before me, I realized the best route to Megaton was to follow the broken road through the ruins. I walked away from the scenic overlook and descended down the small path toward the road.

As I walk down the road, I began to hear music in the distant ahead of me. The music became louder as I approached the dead town. I recognized the music as the Marine's hymn; Officer Gomez had taught me the song. He claimed that his great grandfather from before the war were Marines. I hummed along with the music as I entered the town.

Suddenly, I spotted motion out of the corner of my eyes and I turned to the source coming from between the beams of a ruined house further down the street. The source of the motion floated out from behind the house, for a moment, I was confuse then comprehend came to me, it was a robot with repulsor propulsion, spouting music. I approached the bot and for some reason, it looked familiar to me, then I realized why. It looked very much like the miniature version of the Sputnik satellite launched by the Russian before the Great War.

The mini-sputnik, as I've decided to call it, ignored my approach as it went floating on by me and then all of suddenly the music stopped. In the place of the music, the sputnik began to sprouting what could only be propaganda. I listened to it briefly,

"Hello again, America the magnificent. This is President Eden. And I was hoping we could talk. Let's talk about government, shall we. Or more specifically, your government, dear America. The Enclave. Just who is the Enclave? Why, now that's simple, the Enclave is you, America. The Enclave is your sister, your aunt, your friend, your, your neighbor…"

I wondered what the enclave was and as I pounder this, I noticed a small house up ahead that had signs of habitation. Leaving the mini-sputnik behind me, I moved forward toward the house and knocked on the door. There was no answer and I knocked again before trying the doorknob. It was not locked so I enter, but before I could take another step. A woman, her bloodshot eyes wide in fear, shoves the muzzle of her gun into my face.

"Who are you? What do you want? Did Moriarty sent you!?" Her voice rose with each question until she was screaming, "You go and tell him that you found me dead and I'll pay you an hundred caps."

I could not get a word in with her screaming, so I waited until she paused to take in a breath. Before she could continue her tirade, I slapped the hand holding the gun to the side and quickly covered her mouth.

"Listen, I do not know who Moriarty is and if you had allowed me to speak, I would have told you that I am from a vault," I did not want to reveal exactly where I came from, "I'm sure that if you had calm down a little and observe my clothes, you would have realize that."

Her eyes, still wide in fear, darted up and down as she looks over me. When I felt her body beginning to relax, I asked,

"You're not going to do something stupid when I let you go?"

She shook her head and I released her, she spun and went to sit down by the refrigerator,

"Sorry about that," her hand was shaking so hard, "I kinda took something from Moriarty and he wants it back."

"So, you're a thief. Well, it's certainly not my problem." I responded, "All I need from you is information."

After some time persuading, Silver finally relents and explained to me everything I needed to know about the world I've just entered. She explained to me everything from humans to creatures to mutants. She also told me all about the monetary system of the Capital wasteland which was bottle caps. I coaxed everything I could out of her. By the time I was done, she was mentally exhausted and sweating profoundly. I got up from the chair across from her and was all set to leave when she stopped me.

"Listen, if I pay you a hundred caps, will you tell Moriarty when you run into him that I left town?"

"Maybe I will, but only if you'll give me all the caps that you took from Moriarty," Silver's eye widen and before she could speak, I interrupted, "Ahh, before you speak, know that my father is a doctor and I can recognize the symptoms of addictions. Bloodshot eyes, shaky hands, and profound sweating; I'm afraid you've got them all and let me tell you something, I detest addict. You don't have much choice, Silver, so what is it going to be?"

I left Silver's house with four hundred caps and decided instead of heading directly for Megaton, I would go scavenging through what remain of Springvale as I discovered the name of the town from Silver. My scavenging yields few treasures such as fragment grenades, alcohol drinks, drugs, .32 pistol and few rounds. Satisfied with this, I set off for Megaton.

I followed the makeshift signs to Megaton, and as I approach the town, I came across a dirty dishevel man begging for a pure water. He was sitting not far from the gate to Megaton and I asked,

"You're practically on Megaton's doorstep, why can't you get water from there?"

"The bastards in there won't give away pure water to anybody except the residents, the visitors have to buy it and I don't have any caps."

"Well, I have two bottles of pure water that you can have," I handed out two bottles, "here, enjoy it."

"Are you serious, I can have it?" He asked I'm amazement, "I don't have to pay or do anything?"

"That's right, go ahead."

I walked on leaving the man to his pure water; my approach to the Megaton's gate was not unnoticed. As I approached the gate, a voice rang out.

"Welcome to Megaton. The bomb is perfectly safe, we promise"

Standing beside the gate, there stood a protectron, the source of the voice,

"Please hold for threat level assessment."It requested as I drew near, I stopped and it scanned me, "Threat level minimal. Open the gates. Open the gates. Welcome to Megaton."

Passing by the protectron, I stepped through the gate, once inside, I was approached by a dark skinned man, he was dressed in leather trench coat with a cowboy hat and he had a Chinese rifle hanging off his back. I also noticed a metal star pinned to his chest, I assumed that he was a lawman of some kind. Sure enough, he introduced himself as Lucas Simms, the sheriff of Megaton and the mayor when needed. In the course of our conversation, he gave me a friendly warning not to mess with him or anybody in Megaton. Out of curiosity, I asked him about Megaton and where the name came from, he pointed to the crater at the center of the town. To my utterly shock, there was an unexploded atomic bomb in the crater,

"Why the hell is there an unexploded atomic bomb in the middle of the town!? Please tell me it been disarmed."

"No," Lucas shook his head, "I don't trust any of the guys here, and none of them have the expertise to disarm that thing."

"Jesus!" I dragged my hand over my face, "Alright, I'll disarm that thing; I don't need it to go up while I'm here."

"Are you sure," I glared at Lucas and he held out a hand in placating gesture, "Just take a look first, if you can disarm that thing, I'll pay you a hundred caps."

"A hundred, well I'm guessing but that sound a little bit low but since I'm new to this place, I'll do it."

Lucas's right eyebrow rose and he took a closer look at me and noticed the 101 on the back of my jumpsuit, he asked,

"You're from the vault nearby, right?"

"Yeah. I just left recently."

"All right, I'll give you the basic; first, the land outside is called capital wasteland although most of us just call it wasteland, everything out there will try to kill you be it creatures or humans or the stuff in the middle. Bottle caps or just caps, are our version of money, we use it to buy or sell stuff but you can trade stuff too. As for the law, well, the only law out there is the bullets in your gun. In Megaton, I am the law, understand?"

"Yep. Although you didn't have to explain that to me, I already ran into somebody who explained everything to me."

"Good. Anything else?"

"Yes, my father left the vault earlier this morning," I explained, "I think he may have came through here recently. Have you seen him?"

"Yeah, I've seen him, had that look in his eye like he had a purpose. He went to Moriarty's saloon, just take the first ramp to the right down there," Lucas pointed to the ramp down the hill, "Go straight up that ramp, the saloon's on the other side of the crater. Let me give you a advice, Moriarty is NOT your friend and for god's sake don't trust the guy."

"All right, I'll check out the bomb first and disarm it if I can then head to Moriarty's. You want to come and watch?"

"Yeah, beside, you might need me to watch your back because there's a church devoted to the worship the bomb called Church of Atom and they might take offense if they see you tinkering around with it."

I groaned as I went down the hill, the last thing I need was a mob of religious fanatics trying to kill me. When I got to the bomb, it was lying in the middle of a pool of water. _Great, I'm going to have to use some of my rad-x._ I looked around to make sure the coast was clear. There was nobody watching so I popped some rad-x into my mouth and went to work opening a panel and saw that the one of the wires connecting to the detonator had come loose. Upon closer inspection, it seem that the wires had came loose long time ago and it may have been the reason why the bomb didn't went off because the wire was the one providing power to the detonator. I carefully moved the wire away from the detonator and removed the power source first. After I removed it, I handed it over to Lucas then the detonator came out next. With the detonator in my hand, I turned to the sheriff,

"Now the bomb won't go off by accident, that part you're holding is the power source for the detonator that I'm holding now. It can still go off but only if somebody installed a new power source and a detonator."

"Thank you." Lucas's shoulder relaxed as if the weight of the world has finally been lifted off his shoulder, "When you're done with Moriarty, come and find me, I'll have your caps waiting for you."

"All right." I handed the detonator over to Lucas and he left to get rid of the parts while I head over to the saloon. I went up the ramp over the clinic and past the craterside supply and came up to the door to the saloon. I took a deep breath and went inside.

The inside smelled of alcohol and smoke, but I wasn't thinking about that, no, when I saw the dude standing behind the counter hitting a radio, for a moment, all I could think was _What the fuck is that?_ I had to restrain myself from shooting the guy because I realized that he must be what Silver told me was a ghoul. His skin was slouching off in pieces, even a piece of his nose was missing. I shuddered but once I had myself under control, I approached the counter.

"Hey smoothskin, you need anything? Drinks, foods, what?"

"Um, how about a beer?"

"Huh, you're not going to scream at me, hit me, or berate me or anything?"

"Nope," I asked, "Why?"

I'm used to everybody doing that just because I'm a ghoul. But since you didn't do that, I'll risk Moriarty's wrath and give you a discount on whatever you're buying."

"Thanks," I hesitated, "Um, as you can see from my clothing, I'm not exactly from around here, and you're the first ghoul I've run into. So, can you tell me a little more about ghoul?"

"Well, basically, a ghoul is an human that have been irradiated to a point where the radiation made them very long living but it also came with a price, your skin slouches off and for some, their mind become feral, primitive. There is an advantage though, the radiation heal us."

"So, all ghouls look like you?"

"Yep."

"Oh, anyway, I'm wondering if you could help me, the sheriff said that my father came here earlier today and I'm wondering if you saw him."

"Yeah, I normally keep my head down and avoid looking at customers in the eye, Moriarty slap me on the head if I do but I did saw him recently. He went to talk with Moriarty."

"Can you tell me anymore?"

Umm." He looked around and decided the coast was clear, he leaned forward, "Moriarty keep a record on everybody he run into on a computer terminal in the back. That's all I can say."

A red haired woman interrupted,

"Gob, shut up. Don't tell him anything."

"It's too late Nova, I've already told him everything." Gob replied, "He's the only one, apart from you, that actually made the effort to be kind me."

"Christ, all right." Nova turned to me, "If you're going to break into the computer, you'll need the password. I don't want this to blow back onto Gob, so you better get in and out fast."

"Don't worry," I reassured Nova, "It won't blow back on either one of you."

"It better not," Nova nod her head behind me and I turned my head, "There's Moriarty leaving his office, he'll be outside smoking for a while, now's your chance."

I watched the silver haired man and the moment he closed the door to outside, I slipped around the counter and into the back room. Gob was right, the terminal was there and in a instant, I entered the password and downloaded everything on it into my pip-boy. I was done and out off the back room within three minutes. To prevent Moriarty from becoming suspicious, I grabbed a half drained beer from a table and sat down in a empty chair across from a guy wearing a white suit and a fedora.

As I sat there, the guy in the suit was constant staring at me. His staring was wearing away what little nerve I had, finally, I snapped,

"What the hell do you want asshole?"

"You are not from here which mean this place has no hold on you. I have a certain employer who considered Megaton blight on the landscape of the Capital Wasteland: and would very much like for this place to vanish from his sight."

Sarcastically I said,

"Please go on, I'm … Enthralled."

"Ah, I have here a Fusion Pulse charge which if you attached to the bomb in the crater, will cause the bomb to go off. The individual I'm working for would be more than glad to pay you hundred caps for the service rendered."

"Make it five hundreds and I'll do it."

"Oh very well, five hundred it is."

I smiled as I got up and left the saloon, once outside, I made a beeline to the gate's entrance and found the sheriff standing there.

"Hey sheriff, you know the guy in the suit at Moriarty's?"

"Yeah, calls himself Mister Burke, never liked him. Something about him throws me off."

"Well, here's why, he asked me to rigs the bomb to go off," I took out the charge and showed it to him, "here's the Fusion pulse charge he gave me."

"Son of a bitch, come on, you're about to witness the wasteland justice firsthand."

The sheriff took off toward the saloon and I ran along behind him. When we arrived at the saloon, the sheriff confronted Mister Burke. While the sheriff was talking, I saw Burke's hand twitched as if he was preparing to draw his gun. Discreetly I moved closer and to the side of the sheriff so I'll have a clear shot. Sure enough, the moment the sheriff turned his back, Burke went for his pistol. Instantly I active my VATS and drew my gun before Burke's hand had even got close to his gun. I fired three shot into his head and it exploded. _The bullets must have been an hollowed point_, I wondered. At the sound of the first shot, Lucas spun around bringing his rifle up to his shoulder. All he saw was me standing over a headless Burke,

"What the hell are you doing asshole, he was coming peacefully!"

Instead of replying, I turned Burke over and took out a silenced 10 mm pistol. Lucas's eye widen in shock and then he nodded in thank. Moriarty came up behind Lucas and after taking a look at the body, he exclaimed,

"Damnit, now what am I going to do about the fucking mess here." He turned to the sheriff, "if this drives away customers, I'm going to demand reparation for this."

Lucas scoffed and told him to take the body out of here; he turned back to me,

"Come with me please."

He took me back to his house where he introduced me to his son sitting at the table,

"Harden, this gentleman is from the vault. He just saved my life; you can talk to him anytime you want to."

As the sheriff walked over to an locker, the son came up to me,

"Thank you, for saving daddy." He held his hand out and I shook it, "my name is Harden Simms."

"Hello Harden, it's nice to meet you."

The sheriff took something out of the locker and brought it over to where I stood and handed it to me. It was a small satchel and a paper rolled up with a ribbon tying it closed. There also was a key attached to the ribbon.

"The satchel's your five hundred caps and the paper's a deed to a house above the Brass Lantern. The key's for the door. The house's right across the path from mine, it has been empty for a while since the last owner died. The house also comes with a Mr. Handy robotic butler; the last owner called it Wadsworth."

"Why five hundred caps?" I asked, "I thought you said one hundred."

"You've just left the vault, you'll need the caps and beside," he looked over to his son, "let's say it's a payment for saving my neck,"

"Saving your neck was my pleasure, there's no need to pay me for that."

"Oh I'm afraid I must insist."

"Well, that's different story," I took the bag, "all right, if you insists."

"Oh I do insist."

My hand reached for the doorknob but the sheriff stopped me,

"Hey, I never got your name."

"I don't have one," I sighed, "my name along with my old life ended when I left the vault. When I've decided on a new name, you'll be the first to know."

"All right. Until then, I'll call you vaultie."

I chuckled and left, making my way to my new house. I used the key and went inside only to come face to face with the butler,

"Whoa, Wadsworth," I pushed the bot back, "Hello, I'm the new owner of this house."

"Ah, may I see the deed?"

"Sure," I held up the deed and one of his three sensors leaned forward to scan the paper,

"Yes that seem correct," his sensor pulled back, "welcome to your new house Master. Is there anything you need?"

"How about a tour?"

"Of course, it would be my pleasure." Wadsworth floated the middle of the room, "This is the lounge room, and to my left in the back is the kitchen."

Wadsworth then floated up the stairs and I followed. Wadsworth came to a stop beside the first door,

"Here is a small study room which you can convert to any use, and the room behind me is the master's bedroom, in there is a desk and a filing cabinet. To my right is landing that overlook the lounge area,"

"Is that all?"

"Yes, although I suggest visiting Moira for some decoration, this house is quite bare."

"Moira?"

"Yes, Moira Brown, she is the owner of Craterside Supply."

"Craterside Supply, yes, I've passed by that place on my way to Moriarty's. Is that a place where I can buy some supplies as well?"

"Yes, she sells varies of items that you may find useful in your venture."

"Thank you." I check my pip-boy and saw that it is only four in the afternoon. I decided to pay Moira a visit. A short walk later, I entered Craterside supply and the first thing I noticed was a armed man leaning against the wall, a noise from the other side of the room grabbed my attention and it was another red haired woman, this time of younger age.

"Ahh, you must be the stray from the vault," she welcomed me with a smile, "I haven't seen one of you since maybe ten years ago. She was young woman fresh out of the vault and I offered to armor her jumpsuit. Unfortunately she never came back for it; most likely she died out there."

She gestured to a wall behind her and I looked, it was an vault 101 jumpsuit,

"How long ago did you say it was?"

"Around ten or twelve years."

The only person that vanished between ten and twelve years ago was Kristen Hannon, the eldest sister of Paul Hannon Jr. Nobody in the vault knew what happened to her; some assumed she committed suicide by jumping in the incineration.

"How good is the armor?"

"It's good; the armor'll even stop a shotgun at close range."

"Will you accept a Security armor in exchange for that?"

"Sure but I'll give it to you for free if you'll agree to give me a foreword for a book I'm writing. It'll be pretty good to have a foreword of a vault dweller."

"Um, sure."

"Excellent," she giggled and pulled me over to her terminal where I entered my foreword. After I finished, she handed the armored jumpsuit over and asked me to help her with the book. It was suppose to be a compile of advices on how to survive the wasteland. Said she'll pay me for it. I thought that since I'm not experienced, I might be able to learn something while working on the book so I agreed. She offered three choices of 'missions' that I could do. I decided to try the mission regarding radiation.

After she told me what she wanted me to do, I seriously considered telling her to forget it and she must have known what I was thinking because she reassured me that she don't want me to lethally irradiated me. For some reason I'll never figure out, I agreed to it.

An hour and 600 rads later, I managed to drag myself into the craterside supply, Moira came up,

"Hey, you're positively glowing, how do you feel?"

"Look lady," I replied sarcastically, "If I listen closely, I can hear my genes crying."

"Oh so you're experiencing delusions too, fantastic."

Before I could resorts, I blacked out. I woke up later on Moira's couch upstairs. Moira's face came into my view,

"Hey welcome back to the land of the living. How do you feel?"

I groaned in reply and told Moira that I was taking a break from researching for a while.

"Oh," Her face fell in disappointment but she replied "well, all right, but don't take too long, people's lives depend on this book."

I had to restrain my eyes from rolling as I got up and went downstairs and left the store. By the time I got home, I was so tired that I just went straight to bed and collapsed on it. Before I knew it, I was fast asleep.


	3. Traveling Partner

I woke up the next morning feeling, surprisingly, well, almost as if the 600 rads from yesterday had never occurred. I swung my leg over the edge of the bed and checked my pip-boy; it was nine thirty in the morning. Yawning as I rubbed my face, I pulled the duffle bag that I had dumped next to the desk yesterday, to me. I upended the bag on my bed and went through the stuff I had cramped into the bag. Half hour later, I had them all spread out on the floor of the room; three 10mm pistols with 6 extra clips, two vault security armors, BB gun, baseball bat, bobblehead, Tunnel Snake Jacket, 4 fragment grenades, three scotch, two whiskey, .32 pistol, 12 rounds for .32 pistol, 3 psychos, 6 jets, 4 stimpaks, and a _Pugilism Illustrated_ magazine.

The weapons, I took to the small study room that I have decided to convert to an armory; the armors also joined the weapons in the armory. The bobble head that I took from father's office back in the vault went on the bobblehead stand in the lounge room. The Tunnel snake jacket went into the locker to the right of the bobblehead stand. The alcohol drinks went into the refrigerator along with the drugs while the _Pugilism Illustrated_ magazine went into the filing cabinet beside my bed. After changing out of the regular vault jumpsuit, I don the armored jumpsuit. When I bend down and picked up the regular jumpsuit, something fell out one of its pocket and landed under the bed.

I dropped to my knees and reached under the bed, feeling around, my hand landed on something small and squared. I pulled it out and it was a holotape, flipping it around, I saw dad's handwriting, _To my son._ I realized that it was the tape I had took out of Dr. Jonas's hand and hastily stuffed it into my pocket when I heard Amata. I had completely forgotten about it. I sat back on the bed and loaded the tape into my pip-boy; my father's voice came over the speaker,

_Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first. _

_I... I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong and there's really no telling how the overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going. _

_(Jonas) Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with_

_Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you._

The holotape ejected with audible click but I barely paid it any notice. The sound of dad's voice had broken down the dam and I burst in tears as the memories of the escape from the vault bombarded my mind, most especially the face of the men I killed. For the next fifteen minutes, my house was filled with the sound of me crying, eventually my tears was spent. After wiping away the tears, I suddenly remembered the information I stolen from Moriarty's terminal and I brought up the record about dad.

_So, out of nowhere, James came back to Megaton. Since he stayed here before he asked me where the hell he could get a lay of the land and find out what's going on in the world. I told him about Galaxy News Radio in the ruins of D.C., and that guy three dog. Then like that, he was gone again._

_I remember the first time he showed up almost twenty years ago. I never expected someone to actually want to or be able to get INTO a vault, but he must have had his reasons. He had his kid with him, some baby that won't shut the fuck up. Normally I would have kicked someone like that out off my place, but he had a way with words. Then, like that he ducks into Vault 101 and he's gone for almost twenty years. Nice guy I guess, but never spend enough caps._

It was as if the ground had suddenly opened up underneath me. _I wasn't born in the vault!?_ The thought ran through my mind as I tried to deny this but I knew that I couldn't. If I accepted the fact that I was not born in the vault but instead brought into the vault by my father, then all the snide comments and muttering that I had overheard over the years from the older generation would immediately be explained.

I cursed and then sighed as I got up and plunked the holotape into the desk drawer. I left the bedroom and went to the armory where I went to work cleaning my pistols and the BB gun. The menial tasks helped clear my mind and allowed me to think. An hour passed while I cleaned the weapons, by the time I finished, I had made my decision. I got up from the table where I've been working and took two of the 10mm pistol along with the .32 pistols and ammo for it. I took one of the spare vault armor as well and went over to Moira's.

Moira was standing behind the counter writing on a piece of paper and looked up as I came in, her face lighted up when she saw me.

"Hey vaultie, you're just in time," she greeted, "I just finished writing down the section regarding the radiation experiment you assisted in yesterday. I think it would be a great way to end this section with your opinion of the treatment I used."

"Well, I feel perfectly fine when I woke up this morning and my Pip-boy doesn't detect any residual radiation at all." I answered reluctantly, "So I am forced to admit that your treatment actually does work."

"Oh. Goody, I was little worried about using the Brahmin milk as the base of the treatment since it's slightly radioactive, but I guess it didn't matter."

I dumped my cargos onto the counter and she promptly forgot what she was saying and immediately began inspecting the weapons and the armor. I left Moira to the inspection and went to do a little of my own inspection of her weapons that were for sale. Three attracted my interest, two were Chinese assault rifle and another one is a sawed off shotgun. I reached for the shotgun but Moira spoke up,

"All right, what do you want to do with these? Trade or sell?"

"Trade," I turned to Moira, "I want the two Chinese assault rifles and the sawed off shotgun, along with hundred round for each."

She shook her head, "Afraid not, the armor and the weapons are enough for either the two rifles or the shotgun and ammo for it."

"What if I go back to my house and grab some of the alcohol I scavenged from Springvale, will that get me what I want?"

"Depends, what kind is it?"

"I've got some whiskeys and scotches."

"Bring me the whiskeys and you got a deal, bring the scotches and I'll throw in the custom Brahmin holster I made for the shotgun."

"Agreed!" I couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride as I completed my first trade in the wasteland. Of course, later I found out that I could've got more with the whiskey and scotches. "Why don't you hold onto this while I go and get the drinks?"

"Sure, I'll get the guns and the holster ready for you."

I sprinted back to my house and grabbed the drinks; the Sheriff was standing outside the door when I came out,

"Hey vaultie," he exclaimed as I literally ran into him just as I left the house, "where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Moira's, we just finished a trade and I'm bringing her the drinks," I held up the whiskeys and the scotches, "in return for the guns I wanted."

"Ah, so you are still going after your dad?"

"Actually, no." seeing the raised eyebrow, I gestured the sheriff to follow me while I explained; "I just found a holotape my dad made before he left the vault. He didn't want me to leave the vault with him. Normally, that kind of statement would've hurt me badly but because he and I had grown distant over the last three years. Before he had left the vault, I had wondered why but now, I think that since I had passed the GOAT test, three years ago, he may have felt that my future was secured and that he could focus on whatever made him left the vault. I'm going to respect his wish and let him do whatever he wants and I'm going to make a new life here."

I came to stop outside the Craterside supply and I turned to the sheriff when he asked,

"So what are the guns for?"

"I agreed to help Moira with her book and one of the missions involves visiting the super duper mart and I got a feeling I'm going to need the guns."

"You're working for Moira," he peered at me, "um, I don't know if you've figured this out but she's not exactly normal woman."

I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"I know, I knew it the minute she asked me to get myself irradiated for her experiment. Still, I needed the experiences if I'm going to survive in the wasteland."

"Yeah, you do." The sheriff sighed, "Do you know how to shoot?"

"Yes, an old friend of mine back in the vault taught me."

"Good," Lucas went inside with me, "What guns are you getting?"

Moira had the guns spread out on the counter along with the ammo and the holster, I pointed to it as my answer to the sheriff's question. He went over to inspect the guns, while he busies himself, Moira came over and I handed her the drinks.

"Great," she yipped in delight, "Now I have what I need for the molerat repellent. You can go ahead and pick up your stuff."

She took the drinks to a cabinet at the back of the store and then came back. The sheriff looked up from his inspection and greeted her then they got to talking. While they talked, I looked at the holster realized that it was an ammo belt with a holster for the shotgun. I strapped it on, the holster rested horizontally against my lower back. I slide the shotgun into the holster, and practiced drawing it several time to become accustom to it. He slid the gun back in then began to load the shells onto the belt.

"Moira," I spoke up, "You said that you need me to check out the Super Duper Mart? For what?"

She opened her mouth but was interrupted by the sheriff,

"WAIT! You're checking out the mart, now I know you're new here but are you insane? Places like that usually have raiders crawling all over the place."

"Why did you think I bought the guns, I knew that places like the mart may have people there, and I also knew that the odds of the people being friendly was low."

"If you knew this, then why are you going?"

"Because I need the experience," I explained, "like you said, I'm new to the wasteland and I don't intent to end up dead because of the lack of experience."

"If you go there, you will die."

"And if I go out into the wasteland without any experience I will definitely die. So I don't really have a choice do I?"

Sheriff groaned, "All right, are you going today?"

"Maybe, it depends on the guns. I'm going to test fire them and see how it act."

"Good," sheriff sighed in relief, "while you're test firing them, I'll see what I can do about getting you a traveling partner, someone who's experienced with the wasteland."

"Ok," I nodded in agreement, "I'll be test firing the guns just outside Megaton."

The sheriff left and I took the guns along with the magazines for the rifles then went to find an empty space outside Megaton to test the guns. For half an hour, I tested fired all three guns. The shotgun works just fine but I was bothered by the frequency of jamming I experienced with both of the rifles. As I was clearing out the latest jamming, the sheriff came and he was being followed by man I recognized as Jericho.

"Hey vaultie," sheriff asked, "how's the guns?"

"The shotgun's fine but both of the rifles keep jamming."

"Here, let me see." I handed the one of the rifle over and he cracked open the receiver, "Yep, the chamber's slightly distorted. This usually happened when the chamber overheated after prolonged firing. Let me see the other one, I think Moira got both of the rifles from the same guy."

The sheriff looked at the receiver of the other rifle and confirmed that the chamber was distorted as well. I couldn't help but curse. Jericho chuckled and I glared at him but then the sheriff spoke,

"I'll fix these but you're going to need a rifle if you're visiting the mart," The sheriff handed over his own rifle, "I'll let you borrow Miss. Kathy. Just make sure you bring her back safely."

"Kathy?" I asked in joking tone, "you named your rifle Kathy?"

"I named it after Harden's mother and my wife." Lucas explained somberly, "She save my ass more than I can count."

"Don't worry," I reassured, "I'll take good care of her."

"You better." He left leaving me alone with Jericho. Jericho turned to me,

"You're the idiot who agreed to help Moira with her book?"

"Um, yeah." I answered nervously, not knowing what he wanted.

"Thanks" Jericho grunted, "and before you start thinking that I'm a softy, don't. The only reason I'm thanking you is because Moira would drive me crazy every time I come in her shop begging me to help her with the book."

"Ok, so if you're not a softy, then why are you here?"

"Didn't the sheriff tell you?" he asked and I shook my head, "Well, I'm your fucking traveling partner."


	4. SuperDuper Mart

Jericho and I stood atop of a hill overlooking the back of the mart, we had decided to leave immediately after the sheriff loaned his rifle to me. We followed the ruined road east out of Springvale. The walk was an hour long and apart from my near miss from a bloatfly, which was instantly shot down by Jericho, the trip was uneventful. As we stood there observing the mart, I started toward the mart only to be stopped by Jericho,

"Are you crazy!" he demanded, "You don't just walk up to the door and hope there's no raiders there. They love places like that, they move in and wait for some suicidal idiots like you to walk in so they can torture and kill you unless you're a woman then they'll rape, torture and then rape you some more. If the women are extremely lucky, they'll just rape her once and then kill her."

"Ok," I asked, "So what do you suggest?"

"My suggestion?" he replied, "my suggestion is to forget this shit and head back to Moriarty's saloon where I can get some time with Nova."

"Sure we can do that," Jericho smiled and turned to leave but I continued, "Of course, you'll have to live with Moira 'driving you crazy' I believe was the exact words you used."

Jericho stopped and then suddenly started cursing; he spun back around and threw me a glare that nearly made me reach for Kathy, sheriff's Chinese assault rifle. After a nerve-wrecking moment, he spitted,

"All right, let's get down to the river; we'll hug along the bank. If I remember it right, the river curves right into the front of the mart."

"Why don't we just sneak up behind that bus?"

Jericho snapped, "Because I rather be far away from the raiders if they decide to shoot at us and if a bullet hit that bus's reactor, it'll go up like mini nuke. Now quit asking fucking stupid questions and let get going."

We went down the hill and followed the riverbank around to the front of the mart and as we got closer to one of the countless outcropping of rocks, Jericho dropped suddenly and gestured to me to do the same. He duck walked behind the rocks and took a quick glance over the boulder. He ducked back down and cussed some more.

"You've got shit for luck," he comment, "there's two raiders out in front of the mart and I'll bet there's more inside."

Before I open my mouth, we heard gunfire came from the mart and we both peeked over the boulder, the two raiders had shot at the mini sputnik, or eyebot as Silver had told me, which had just floated by. In reply, the eyebot returned fire with red lasers. The gunfight didn't take long, since the floating robot had only minimal armor but it did take out one of the raider with a laser to the neck.

"Well, that eyebot did us a favor by taking out that raider." Jericho chuckled as he pulled his Chinese assault rifle around from his back, "I can't believe they were stupid enough to shoot at it."

"Why?"

Jericho groaned, "Because the eyebot don't shoot at people unless somebody shot at it first. Jesus, am I going to have to explain everything to you?"

"No, I got most of the basic from somebody I ran into when I first left the vault."

"Good, because I'm being paid to keep you alive and I'll hate to have to go back and tell Simms that you got your ass shot because you can't keep your mouth shut."

"Gotcha." I shut my mouth, and Jericho laughed.

"Come on, we ain't close enough to kill the last raider."

Jericho began to move again and I followed as he crept closer, staying behind the boulders. We reached the last pile of boulders and I glanced over the boulder to take my first real look at the mart and immediately spun around to throw up. The front of the Mart was decorated with bodies, human bodies. They were hung up by meat hooks and chains. All of them were dismembered and some were even gutted as well. Silver had told me about the raiders but I couldn't believe that anybody could be so inhuman, but the evidences were right there before my eye.

"Look," Jericho pointed to one of the bodies that were still dripping blood and swinging. "The two raiders must have come out to hang up that one. I could never stand it when they do that, I always left when they start cutting."

I turned to Jericho as my finger moved to the trigger of Simms' rifle, "Are you telling me that you used to be a raider?"

"Yep," Jericho replied nonchalantly as he took aim at the remaining raider, "Didn't have much choice though."

Jericho caressed the trigger, and the raider's head exploded into mixture of red mists, chucks of meat and bones. I had to repress the urge to throw up again and asked,

"What do you mean by not having choices?"

Jericho didn't answer, instead, he got up from behind the boulder and sprinted toward the right side door into the mart and I didn't have much choice but to follow. He stopped at the door only for a second to check the interior before continuing in. I followed him inside and quickly took cover inside the entryway taking a moment to let our eyes adjust to the dark interior. Once our eye adjusted, we saw a lone raider patrolling on top of makeshift bridges over the shelves but apart from that, the store was silent.

"This isn't right," Jericho muttered, "There should be more raiders here."

A movement just in the corner of my eye showed a raider sitting inside an entranceway to my left,

"Over there," I whispered to Jericho, "there's another raider, I think he's injecting something into his arm."

"Do you see what it was?"

"Small tube, maybe the size of a pencil. I don't know, it's too dark to tell."

"Med-x" Jericho snorted, "Fucker just made our job easier. All right, that's two raiders, where's the rest."

I didn't answer but for a moment I thought the store itself did with extremely faint sounds of moaning, grunting, and slapping coming from the back of the store. I wondered what it was then suddenly realized exactly what was making that noise. I turned to Jericho, he was shaking his head in disbelief,

"Our job just became whole lot easier." He turned to me, "Here's your first wasteland lesson, kill that stoned out raider without attracting attention."

The memories of the dismembered bodies outside were enough to strength my resolve and I took out the silenced 10mm that I took off Burke. I checked on the patrolling raider, he was all the way at the other side of the store. Silently, I sprinted to the lone shelve in front of me, Now that I was closer to the stoned raider, I could see that he had already fallen asleep. I didn't hesitate as I brought up the 10mm and aimed it at his forehead. I had doubt about the silencer given the fact that it's completely covered in rust but surprising, it worked extremely well; there was only a small puff sound as the raider's brain decorated the wall behind him.

As I watched the brain and blood slowly slide down the wall, I felt something in me die, however I did not have the time to consider exactly what that was since Jericho grabbed me by the collar and dragged me behind the shelve. The other raider had begun his walk back to our side of the store, I kept the barrel of the silencer onto the raider. We kept eye on the rapidly approaching raider through a hole in the shelves. The raider reached the end of the bridge and looked around, when his back were to us, I sprung out and shot him in the back of his head. His body flopped to the floor as if the strings were cut from his body.

"Nice." Jericho commented, "You didn't even wait for me to tell you to shoot. I may just make a wastelander out of you."

I ignored the comment and gestured at him to move on. We weaved through the shelves toward the back of the store. Hiding between two shelves, Jericho and I quickly checked to see if we could see any more raiders. The moaning and slapping sound was stronger and were coming from the room to the left. We could see some motion but nothing else. The room to the right seem empty so we quickly sprint to the door that stood between the two rooms. Once through the door and immediately to our left, there was another door that was opened to the room where the sound was coming from. Jericho sprint to the other side of the door and took a quick glance inside the room. Jericho looked over to me and rolled his eye. I decided to take a quick glance as well. Not surprising, there were at least six raiders all mixed in one big pile of naked flesh. I looked back to Jericho and he had two grenades, one in each hand, and he tossed me one of them. He mouthed,

"Pull the pin and roll them in together."

I nodded and we both pulled the pin and rolled them inside together. To my puzzlement, the explosions were not as loud as I was expecting. I took another look inside and spun around to throw up again. Apparently, the grenades had rolled up under the pile of flesh. As I was hunched over and wiping my mouth, a raider came out of nowhere and started shooting at us. One of the bullets hit my pipboy and out of instinct, I jumped inside the room right into the big pile of bloody body parts. I looked up and didn't see Jericho anywhere.

"Behind you." I spun around and there Jericho was grinning and holding a smoking pistol in his hand and a dead raider at his foot. "I've never seen anybody move as fast as you did. That was pretty funny."

"Fuck you!"

"No thanks, I prefer Nova."

I quickly got up and tried to get as much blood and body parts off me as possible, I failed. We looked around to ensure that there was no more raiders. Just when we was about to head back to the front of the store and started our scavenging, we heard more raiders coming in.

"Spilt up! I'll take the left side, you take the right. Shoot them all."

Jericho sprinted to the left side of the store while I hauled ass to the right side. I shoved the silenced 10mm pistol into my pocket and prepared Kathy. I barely managed to raise Kathy in time to take out the raider that just came around from behind the shelves. It was as if that single burst of gunfire lit off a keg of gunpowder because all of sudden, it seem that every guns in the store was going off. I rushed forward and managed to take out two more raiders. Jericho took out the last raider hiding behind one of the cashier.

My body began to shake as I came down from the adrenaline rush, and I was forced to sit down before I collapse. I looked up and saw Jericho began to looting the bodies,

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

"What do you think," Jericho snapped back, "I'm looting the fucking bodies for whatever I can keep or sell. If you're going to live in the wasteland, you better learn to do whatever you have to do in order to survive. That includes killing anybody that shoot at you, looting the bodies, and foraging through any and all ruins you come across for whatever you can find."

Jericho turned his back and resumes looting the bodies, disgusted, I left him there and went back to the rear of the store to see if I can find some medicines. I stopped just outside the room where the sex crazed raiders were killed. I didn't want to go into that room yet so I followed the hall to the other room. There wasn't much to find there, just some 10mm and .38 rounds along with three frag grenades. I also found a key inside one of the metal boxes. It had SR etched on the bow. I assumed it may have meant storage room so I headed back to the other room and forced myself to go in the room. There was a table with a functioning computer and it was placed next to a door. I tried the door but it was locked so I used the key. The door unlocked and opened into a storage room filled with metal shelves but what held my attention the most was the protectron booth that contained an inactive protectron. Beside the booth were some ammo boxes and another computer. I decided to scavenge the room first before messing with the protectron. As Jericho was busy looting the bodies, I managed to scavenge several Nuka-cola along with some Nuka-cola quantum, few whiskey, dirty waters, beers, and I even found a mini nuke. I had brought my duffle bag with me so I cramped everything I could scavenge including the contents of all the ammo boxes I could find in both the storage room and the next room. I even forced myself to loot some of the raider bodies.

"Jericho," I yelled, "Are you done looting?"

"Almost, give me few minutes!"

I scoffed and decided to try and hack into the computer next to protectron. I brought up my pipboy intending on using the hacking program but I had forgotten that the pipboy had been damaged by the bullet from one of the raider,

"Crap."

I was about to shut the terminal down when I noticed an office employee id on top of the terminal, I grabbed that and gave it a once over, to my surprise, there was a password on the back of the id. I entered the password and got access to the protectron program. I decided that a protectron might become useful later so I left it deactivate until I can figure out a way to bring it back to my place. I kept the Office id and replace the old password with a new one.

"You're done?"

I pivoted, startled by Jericho but I answered quickly,

"No, I think there's a room up front that I haven't checked yet. I've already got medicines that Moira wanted but I haven't found some foods."

"All right, you go ahead and check it out, I'm going outside."

I walked to the front of the mart with Jericho then spilt up, he went outside and I went to the room. Not seeing the door in the back, I just hopped over the counter where the intercom was. On the island in the room, I found a laser pistol along with few energy cells and few drinks. Elastic, I grabbed those and then looked around. To my amazement, I saw yet another laser pistol and more energy cells. Into my duffle bag they went, I also picked up some stimpaks as well. As I move through the room scavenging what I can, I worked my way to the refrigerator in the back. I reached the refrigerator and checked what was inside. Jackpot! There was food which I quickly stuffed down my duffle bag, just as I stuffed the last of the food, I heard gunfire coming from the outside and I dropped the bag and sprinted outside pulling out Kathy. I burst outside, head on swivel, looking for a target but all I could see was Jericho with his gun aimed at a pile of rock, and the barrel was still smoking. I asked,

"What the heck are you shooting at?"

"Radscorpion."

"Huh?" I didn't recognize the name at first but then I remember what Silver had told me about some of the creatures of the Wasteland, "mutated scorpions right?"

"Wow, you actually know something worthwhile." He muttered sarcastically, "Have you ever run into one yet?"

"No, I haven't the chance yet."

"Well, there's a dead one over there," he pointed with his Chinese assault rifle, "Go ahead and check it out."

With my bag almost full from raiding the mart and the bodies, I headed over to take my first look at radscorpion. Jericho followed, keeping his rifle at ready. At first I couldn't find the radscorpion until I noticed the light green blood leaking from one of the 'rock'.

"Jeez, how did you notice that?" I asked Jericho, "I can't tell the difference between the rock and the radscorpion."

"The tail, 'scorpion can't hold their tail down when they move." Jericho grabbed the tail and held it up, "Just keep your eye out for a chimney rock that's moving."

I squatted down to inspect the radscorpion and I realized that the whole body except for the 'face' area, the area around the mouth and the eyes, was armored. The bullet hole from Jericho's gun was right above the mouth; I turned to Jericho and saw that he had dons on gloves before cutting into the tail.

"What are you doing?"

He held up a small fleshy pouch filled with fluid, "Poison gland, very lethal and extremely useful in many different ways. It's worth quite a few caps to some people; I can sell this to Moira for maybe 25 to 30 caps."

I watched as he bagged the gland with great care. I got up and after checking to make sure that Jericho is done with the poison gland, I asked,

"Is that area around the mouth and eyes the only weak spot on radscorpion?"

"Yeah. If you can't get to the face, you can try to shoot the legs off one side of the 'scorpion, that'll disable it long enough for you to get to the face. If you don't care about the profit from the gland, you can also shoot the tail, thought, I won't recommend it. It'll just piss them off and then they'll come after you with those large claws."

Without a word, Jericho stood up and immediately started walking back along the ruined street back toward Megaton. I couldn't help but roll my eyes and followed Jericho. As I walked behind Jericho, I couldn't help but think,

_Life in the Capital Wasteland definitely is going to be very interesting._


End file.
